I'll pretend like I didn't spend the better part of two hours writing out a deliciously goal-filled post before my WordPress crashed and took with it every last word. I'll also pretend like I didn't cry out to the heavens in a form of protest after said crash happened. After all, there is far bigger stuff in the world to worry about, right? Right? RIGHT?
Sorry. I may still be a little high strung.
Deep breath, Shaye.
Let's try this again.
In a form of protest to these horrifically short, dark, cold, drab, stupid days, I made my husband sit down with me over a cup of maple-sweetened Earl Grey tea a few days ago and begged him to help me come up with a clean, definitive list of things we'd like to see accomplished on our farm in 2015.
After all, ‘they say' in order to know where you're going, you need to have a plan!
And since these horrifically, short, dark, cold, drab stupid days are really starting to wear on my nerves, I decided now was as good of a time as any to come up with said plan.
I can't handle sitting in the house… staring out the window… just hoping and praying that spring will arrive earlier than anticipated. I can't handle not being able to be outside in my gardens! Petting my sheep! Doing other cool things besides laying in fetal position on the floor asking God why he thought it was a good idea to ever create this ‘winter' crap.
Girlfriends got stuff to do. And she waits for no one….er, season.
Even if her computer crashes after a 2 hour typing session. Can't nobody break her style. Can't nobody hold her down. Oh no. She's got to keep on movin'.
Screw you, computer. And screw you, winter. As my old friend would say “Get to the back the line, man.”
2015 Farm Goals
Sheep:
1. Fix the boards on the shelter than Hamish insists on ‘ramming' down time and time again. Paint the shelter ‘Milky Cream'.
2. Run a second wire around the large pasture and utilize for spring grazing.
3. Successfully butcher Guido and enjoy our first taste of homegrown lamb!
4. Successfully welcome Rosie's new lambs! Due to arrive April 4th.
Meat Chickens:
1. Raise 60 more Freedom Rangers for the freezer.
2. Mend the shelter, including the netting.
3. Plant the pen's floor in grass and water to ensure a nice, fresh supply of greens for the spring chicks.
Pigs:
1. Find a heritage breeder.
2. Raise 3 pigs to slaughter.
3. Add a load of wood chips to the pig pen.
4. Section off the upper portion of the upper pasture for the pigs to graze and successfully train the pigs to the hot wire.
Laying Hens:
1. Acquire 10 new spring chicks.
2. Add wood chips to the run and fill in any extra holes.
3. Mend the hole in the chicken wire.
4. Build stairs going down to the coop for easier access.
Bees:
1. Pray the bees survive the winter.
2. Harvest our first honey! The 2014 honey is still in full frames that we removed from the hive this fall. They will be fed to the bees throughout the winter and spring as needed. Once we are certain they have enough food to survive, we will harvest the honey from the frames.
3. Have a successful honey harvest in the late fall!
Cow:
1. Reside the milking parlor. Add a metal gate across the entrance so she can't get in, except for at milkings.
2. Build a second shelter for Sally.
3. Successfully welcome Sally's calf onto the farm. Due to arrive May 30th.
4. Successfully dry Sally up in February, in preparation for the new calf.
5. Run cattle panels around the entire corral.
6. Replace 1×6″ boards with round posts.
Garden:
1. Continue to grow all of our produce! Give priority to ‘staple' crops, such as potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, etc.
2. Harvest the first rhubarb and horseradish that was planted last year!
3. Establish 3 new perennial flower varieties in the gardens
Homestead Orchard:
1. Plant a few new fruit trees to replace those lost last year. Per a local orchardist, I will ensure they are full root-stock and not the “semi-dwarf/dwarf crap kind that just want to die.”
Pasture Management:
1. Purchase a water pump and ‘super' sprinkles. Get the irrigation system SET UP and WORKING on both the upper and lower pastures. Utilize and watch that grass grow green! (We live in a desert. This is easier said than done.)
General Farm
1. Hold a Summer Solstice Party for other local farmers and friends!
2. Buy less.
The list may not be exhaustive, but it's a good, solid start for the new year. And while the Lord holds the future of our farm in his hands, I'm thankful we can at least be working towards our ultimate goal.
A farm that serves as a hub for the local, organic, sustainable agriculture movement. A farm that educates, motivates, and celebrates!
Cheers to a productive and delicious 2015!
Nicole @Little Blog on the Homestead
January 11, 2015 at 4:27 pmGreat list! 2015 is going to be a big year for us too, we don’t have much space but we have BIG plans! I hope your bees survive, I was living vicariously through my father-in-law to be and his apiary but then a rogue bear took them out 🙁
Laura W.
January 11, 2015 at 4:48 pmShaye!!! Tell me about your fruit trees! I was just reading your other post about them the other day and was looking at the company you were using. Is that not a good choice? Please, please, please tell me!
Shaye Elliott
January 13, 2015 at 11:57 amThey were great trees! But apparently, not the best for our area. Many of them are ‘dwarf’ stock and a local orchardist/friend of mine told me that these trees are extremely hard to keep alive. He said that for our soil and in our area, we want to get full rootstock… the giant trees… apparently, they want to ‘live’. 😉
Laura W.
January 14, 2015 at 9:56 amThank goodness! I have started planning our orchard and didn’t want to find another company;) Do you know how I could determine if I should do the dwarfs or giants?
The couch potato
January 11, 2015 at 5:41 pmMy goal is to grow enough tomatoes to can sauce for the next year. Really I’ll happy if most plants produce any food at all.
Angi
January 11, 2015 at 6:26 pmOh, this is awesome! I love seeing other people’s homesteading goals. They inspire and encourage me, and help me get through these cold dreary days. (That and drooling over all my packs of seeds). I despise it when WordPress crashes, or in my case, times out because my internet is so crappy! UGH.
Katie
January 11, 2015 at 7:36 pmI hear ya , Shaye!! I keep wanting to be able to be out planting seeds, etc. We are in our first year with meat goats and kidding season is about to start for us. But this winter stuff I could do with out! Thank you for sharing your goals they are an awesome motivator. This will be our first spring here on our homestead/farm and have many ideas of things to do this spring . (if it ever decides to show up! haha)
Rhonda
January 12, 2015 at 12:11 amI love winter. It’s my down time. Time to relax and recoup, plan and garden through Pinterest, magazines, etc., browse seed catalogs, before the real work begins once again.
I don’t understand why you didn’t just leave the frames of honey in the hives. We, rather my sweet hubby, makes sure the bees have all the honey they will need for the winter before harvesting for ourselves. We’ve never heard of taking them out only to put them back in again.
The pictures in your blog post are just beautiful. Ah, winter, another of Gods beautiful creations.
Shaye Elliott
January 13, 2015 at 11:56 amWe do this to condense the hives so that they’re not as large and so the bees can stay warmer throughout the winter. We have hard winters here.
Kellie Steele
January 12, 2015 at 2:39 amWith your meat birds, do you butcher them yourself? Do you do all 60 at once and freeze them or do you stagger them throughout the year. We will need about that many and am deciding on the best way to do it.
Kind regards
Kellie
Shaye Elliott
January 13, 2015 at 11:55 amWe do 2 batches a year – and do the butchering ourselves!
Gretchen
January 15, 2015 at 12:02 pmI love following your posts! I am learning a lot! I was wondering what breed of meat chickens you raise? At what age do you butcher them? Also, what breed of cow do you have? So exciting to have a calf coming soon!! Thanks for sharing!
Shaye Elliott
February 11, 2015 at 12:42 pmWe raise Rainbow Rangers, they’re butcher between 9-12 weeks. Our cow is a Jersey.
Megan @ Restoring the Roost
January 12, 2015 at 10:56 amWonderful list of goals! You are accomplishing so much. It amazes me you are able to do all that you do with three young children. I have twin 14-month old girls, and I can’t seem to find time to much of the gardening/homesteading activities around our property. We aren’t doing but hardly a quarter of all you have on your plate–so please tell me your secrets? I work two days a week part-time but I’m home the rest of the week with my girls. Do your parents help you watch your kids? How do you get so much stuff done? If I were to bring mine outside with me I would constantly have to be with them to keep them safe or keep them in the stroller which they can only stand for so much time without being strolled. Best of luck in 2015!
Lorri @ Endangered-Lifestyle
January 14, 2015 at 2:51 pmWe are planning to add bees this year! I have spent the last couple of weeks building my Spring “portfolio”…aka notebook with all of my drawings, plans and ideas. I just lost my dairy goat this weekend 🙁 So that means I now will be buying at least 2 does this Spring instead of just adding 1. My garden will be a major time investment this year. I usually start off really good, then my kids’ lives overrule everything else and then my garden suffers for it. We now have 3 drivers and they are fully capable of running themselves around town. 😉 My only problem is that all this planning gets me even more excited to get started!! We are doing meaties and adding more layers as well. We might even add some ducks again. Happy Homesteading!!
Kathy Nestell
January 15, 2015 at 12:04 pmThanks for the entertaining read!! I’ve been thinking of posting a similar 2015 to-do list myself but when I look at the long list I assume people will think I’m crazy and setting unrealistic goals! Glad to see you have a hefty list too:)
Leah
January 15, 2015 at 1:08 pmHow old will the lamb be when you butcher it
Shaye Elliott
February 11, 2015 at 12:41 pm11 months.
Denise Watson
January 16, 2015 at 5:41 amHi Shaye, as I was reading your post I was thinking of sooooo many long winters in Buffalo NY where I grew up!!!!! I remember it well, I have lived in Florida for the past 20 years so I don’t go through the winter blues but believe it or not we have summer blues!! I know what u are thinking but when summer is here and the temps soar to the 90’s and the humidity is at a 100% and the sun scorches everything in sight you tend to hibernate to the coolness of any place air conditioned! LOL I live in south Florida which of course makes it worse!! Any who my question is how do your bees survive the cold?? I assume they hibernate, do you cover your hives or something or move them inside your barn?? It may seem like a silly question but I never really thought about that, I guess I though they flew south for the winter like all the other “snowbirds”!! 🙂
carole caplan
January 16, 2015 at 8:58 amYou have inspired me on a cold, winter day in Michigan!
I will make a list and dream of warmer days, sure to come
before I am ready….
Megan
January 21, 2015 at 6:58 amHey there, orchard person here! Many orchards are actually exclusively buying semi-dwarf and dwarfing stock because of how easy it is to harvest (and prune to). I think it’s super important to make sure you know what root stock you’re getting, some are better than others. I would opt for buying trees from a reputable nursery if you can too. We have a lot of semi-dwarf and some standard that we prune to be semi or dwarf.
Your post made me feel okay about our list of farm goals, sending positive accomplish vibes your way! :o)
Jenny
January 21, 2015 at 9:22 pmThis post was fun for me to read, because I do the exact same thing every Winter… plan out my garden, make long to-do lists, start gathering supplies for Summer chores, looking at pictures of Spring and gardens and all things green on Pinterest… I think Winter is the most lousy, no good, horrible, cruddy season EVER! Haha 🙂 Best of luck with your goals this year! Hang in there, Spring always comes! (right? RIGHT?????)
kelly
January 30, 2015 at 7:35 pmI just wanted to say how much I’m enjoying reading your blog. I’m just getting started on my homesteading adventure–like seriously just started, i live in a 30th floor apartment where I’m learning to grow stuff by planting the heck out of the balcony and then chasing pigeons all summer. Thank you for all the inspiration for the future!
kelli
February 15, 2015 at 9:33 pmGreetings! I’ve been following you for about a year. Not sure if I’ve left a comment before. Like your list and goals. Our family of 7 just moved from the city to the country and we feel so overwhelmed building it up from scratch. HOWEVER, feeling blessed at the same time and excited to have the opportunity to steward our Creator’s amazing earth. Congrats on your new baby! I will NOT mention that I live in sunny Florida and it was NOT 70 degrees, sunny and no clouds out today (with a slight breeze). My kids have never seen snow and they’d hop on a plane tomorrow to see it if they could. “The grass is always greener” huh? (grin) Thanks for inspiring fellow farmers and for the time you take here on your blog to share what you’re learning with others!! I take notes often and implement on our own farm. 🙂 Blessings sweet girl!!
http://www.we4bates.blogspot.com
Shaye Elliott
February 18, 2015 at 7:52 amThanks for reading, Kelli!
Kat
April 12, 2015 at 6:25 pmMay I recommend cross-country skiing to make the winter more tolerable? 🙂